Leeds Socialist Party
“Equal work, equal pay!” chanted workers at Airedale General Hospital in Keighley, West Yorkshire, as they staged a protest on 8 September demanding NHS rates of pay.
They are employed by AGH Solutions, an NHS wholly owned subsidiary company (or ‘SubCo’). It is one of several SubCos set up by hospital trusts across Yorkshire in 2018-19.
A SubCo is a private company set up by an NHS Trust, to which they can transfer in-house support services and staff, buildings and land. Most trusts that have created SubCos have done it to try to make savings. The SubCo means they can pay lower wages, and avoid VAT.
In many areas, including in Yorkshire, the bosses were forced back by campaigning and strike action, or the threat of it, but in a number of smaller hospitals like Airedale the managers were able to push ahead.
Disgracefully, under Starmer’s Labour government, instead of fully funding the health service, NHS England has told all NHS trusts that they should normally transfer support services and staff to SubCos to reduce costs.
The highest paid director of AGH Solutions earns over £151,000 a year, meanwhile their workers not only don’t get NHS pay rates, but also don’t receive the pensions, sick pay, Sunday-working enhancements, etc, that NHS workers have.
Strike action is due to take place on 12, 15 and 16 September.
